Jon Jones Reacts as Alex Pereira Confirms Heavyweight Move to Joe Rogan, MMA World Goes Wild After UFC 300

First the middleweight. Then light heavyweight. Is heavyweight next? Yes! After demolishing Jamahal Hill at UFC 300, Alex Pereira is ready for heavyweight. After winning the fight, the stone-faced fighter announced his plans: “You know, I wanna keep to continue to defend this belt. Though a lot about fighting in Brazil. I won this fight and I’m not hurt, nothing happened. I know there should be a lot of promotion behind a fight, but you know, I wanna have a fight at heavyweight.” 

This might come as a surprise for many because Pereira didn’t spend much time in the light heavyweight division. He is just three fights into the weight class. However, his rise to the top has been meteoric. He originally joined the promotion as a middleweight fighter, but let’s not forget how big he was for the division. Thus, his move to light heavyweight was embraced by fans.

But how would he fit into the heavyweight division? The 6’4” fighter has a walk-around weight of roughly 230 lbs. But as we know, heavyweight fighters can weigh much heavier when not in camp. Remember how long it took Jon Jones to pack on pounds to make his heavyweight debut? Three years.

Now that we have mentioned Jones- the heavyweight champion- how could he not react to Pereira’s statements? Of course, he took to X to share his thoughts. “My goodness,” he opined.

However, it is not known if Pereira will immediately move to heavyweight or spend some more time at light heavyweight (though he has hinted that he wants to go for a heavyweight fight at UFC 301). Do you remember how his arch nemesis, Israel Adesanya, had tried his luck at light heavyweight against Jan Blachowicz? Unfortunately for ‘Izzy’, he lost that bout. Many people noted how small Adesanya looked in comparison to Blachowicz. The fighter did not attempt to gain much weight. So it will be interesting to see if Pereira takes his time or decides to move up immediately.

Why is it largely impossible for Alex Pereira to headline UFC 301 in Brazil?

Seven fights are all it took for the Brazilian to become a two-division UFC champion. The fastest fighter to achieve this. Also, let’s understand that no fighter in the promotion’s history has been a three-division champion. So Alex Pereira seems to be eyeing this.

Pereira, who comes from a very solid kickboxing background, has become somewhat of a legend within the MMA community for his scary knockout power that often puts people to sleep. So if we look at his UFC 300 performance, even MMA fighters were shocked! The Bazilian launched several punches on Hill’s head just the way he did to Jiri Prochazka back at UFC 295. And the knockout win came at about 3:14, into round 1. Pereira went on to mock Hill in a fashion similar to the influencer Khaby Lame, who points at things with both his hands as if to say, ‘It’s just that simple’.

Clearly, he didn’t receive any damage during the fight. So it wouldn’t take him much time to recover. But how realistically possible is it for him to feature at UFC 301 in Brazil? It will take place on May 4. That’s just a couple of weeks away. But Dana White revealed that the champion suffered a broken toe while training, and he doesn’t recommend pushing it. “The heavyweight division is nasty. I don’t know if that’s the right move for him. He looked damn good tonight in the division he’s in,” he shared.

And White isn’t wrong about Pereira’s performance in the light heavyweight division. His opponent, Jamahal Hill, knew who he was up against as he prepared for his UFC 300 main event bout. The Brazilian can be scary to be up against and has become a double champion with only 7 fights in the UFC by knocking people out. The pre-match build-up started on a respectful note, with both Hill and ‘Poatan’ acknowledging the powerhouse fighters they both are! But later, Hill went far enough to upload a hilarious skit acknowledging how people expected him to want to leave the cage after taking a leg kick from the Brazilian and how he believed that he may just get knocked out kicking him instead.

Nevertheless, things changed slowly as the night of the fight approached. It looked like Hill was stepping into his fighter mindset and Alex Pereira was not happy with it. ‘Sweet Dreams’ showed up with a ‘Stone Head’ emoji at the press conference.

It, of course, signified Pereira’s head and Hill had it on a chain. After an intense face-off, Hill broke it to pieces and Pereira was heard saying, “I’ll make him remember this moment when I’m in my walkout about to go to the Octagon and my music is playing. I’ll make him remember this moment.” Looks like Alex Pereira has stayed true to his word, and we all know how that worked out! The MMA world was overwhelmed by the knockout he delivered.

The MMA world is left shocked!

UFC pros like Sean O’Malley and Gilbert Burns who were present at the arena, saw it all unfold live and were beyond shocked to see Hill get knocked out so early into the fight. There were also many others who were kicking back and relaxing at home who tweeted out about it all. “Alex Pereira offers to make a quick turnaround to fight at heavyweight at #UFC301 next month in Brazil. Do it,” wrote MMA reporter Mike Bohn.

Similarly, MMA reporter Alex Behunin commented, “Looks like Poatan is going to Brazil haha.” Bellator’s Light Heavyweight champion, Corey Anderson, was shocked by the KO. Not many expected the fight to end so quickly.

Terence McKinney was too surprised at the speed of the way things ended. But was it really surprising? Out of 10 wins, Pereira has won 8 via KO/TKO and 2 through decisions.

Clearly, the fight played out well enough for Pereira for him to make the next move. He and Tom Aspinall had been sending out rumors of a fight for a while now. And now, when that could be a reality, will Aspinall treat Alex Pereira differently than did Hill ahead of the matchup? There is no way to know about it right now.

So what was your take on the epic PPV we just witnessed? Tell us if you think Pereira will fare well in the heavyweight division against legends like Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones, and become a three-division champion!